The 18-year-old could still win the title despite missing a race

Christian Eckes needs positive results and good luck after losing the ARCA championship lead due to a bout of food poisoning.

Christian Eckes’ path to the ARCA Racing Series championship hit a figurative speed bump two weeks ago in southern Indiana.

The 18-year-old entered the third race of the season as the championship leader but failed to take the green flag of the rain-shortened Kentuckiana Ford Dealers 200 at Salem Speedway when he was hospitalized for a small esophageal tear in his trachea as a result of food poisoning.

He was released early last week after receiving treatment for a bacterial infection but now finds himself eighth in the standings and 105 points behind new leader Travis Braden.

"I went back to the hotel on Saturday right before dinner and was like, ‘I feel like I’m going to throw up,’ and started vomiting profusely," Eckes told Autoweek on Monday. "I actually felt better after that. Michael (Self, Venturini Motorsports teammate) came in my room afterwards, and I even asked him what we were doing for dinner.

"But then I lost my energy and didn’t want to go anywhere. I finally got the courage to go to the hospital, and the doctors found that I had an elevated white blood cell count. I thought we had figured out what it was and even felt good enough to at least start the race on Sunday, and that’s when the doctor called me back in at the last minute."

His doctors feared that he could have suffered a collapsed lung if he attempted to race.

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The three-time ARCA race winner and 2016 Snowball Derby winner has since made a full recovery but surrendered a comfortable 80-point championship advantage as a result.

Now the road back to contention begins on Friday at Talladega Superspeedway.

"The emotional part hurt more," Eckes said of his ailment. "It was such a good weekend up until that point. I felt like we had a good practice and I qualified second, and was looking forward to the race, and thought we could take the battle to Self because he was on such a hot streak.

"But the way I see it, I'm not going to feel sorry for myself. I'm going to use it as a motivation to excel for the rest of the season. It's unfortunate that it happened, but it's going to drive me to be even better."

The 105-point deficit isn’t much more than 16 positions on the racetrack, but Eckes is aware that this weekend at Talladega could result in an even deeper hole should he get caught up in a big multi-car incident since there are currently 25 drivers entered into the General Tire 200.

Of course, he also won the pole for the season-opening race at Daytona International Speedway in February and would rather repeat the feat in Alabama and stay there for 200 miles.

"Our strategy depends on where we qualify," Eckes said. "In a perfect world, I think we all want to be out front because it's safer there, but it's always in the back of our minds that we could escape to the back if we needed to.

"If things get crazy, there are a couple of us that would probably work together and make it work. Michael doesn't want to crash in another superspeedway race this year, so that could be an option for him too. But I think we have another chance to win a pole, and if we do that, we're going to try to stay there and see what happens."

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And if he can survive Talladega with a solid position intact, Eckes expects his Kevin Reed Sr.-led team to quickly move up the standings.

"I feel like I am in the best position I ever have been each time I step in the car," Eckes said. "I feel like I’m making all the right adjustments behind the wheel. Venturini Motorsports has the best equipment in the series and I feel like we can win every week we get to the track.

"Michael has shown that after winning at Pensacola and Salem, and we’ve been right there with consistency.

"So that gives me good perspective that we can make this up. I’m not going to do anything different than what got us the championship lead after the first two races in the first place. We’ll see where it stands after each weekend."